<body>

<h2><a name="navigation"></a>Database Navigation</h2>

<P>

The AMOS administrative interface offers a dynamic, context sensitive
front-end which allows browsing the database tables hosted in the AMOS
system. It offers several utilities including the following:

<UL> 

<LI><EM>Search</EM>: Sequential search. All the results of the query are
displayed one by one on demand. The interface provides nice features to
browse these results by selecting search state sensitive, dynamically
generated search options "Next" and "Previous".

<LI><EM>Show matches in a table</EM>: All the tuples satisfying the query
are displayed in a table.

<LI><EM>Show matches in an editable table</EM>: As in the previosu case,
all the tuples satisfying the query are displayed, but this option enables
the AMOS administrator to edit the data right on the results provided.

<LI><EM>Insert</EM>: Allows the insertion of a new tuple of the current
table, previously checking all the mandatory fields have been filled in. It
also ensures the element to be inserted doesn't exist in the table already.

<LI><EM>Delete</EM>: Deletes all the tuples that instantiate the
query. Watch out: Empty form fields instantiate anything!

<LI><EM>Modify</EM>: Allows editing a given tuple of the table.

<LI><EM>Clean the form</EM>: After a search action, this option can be used
to refresh the form, providing a new one with all fields empty.

<LI><EM>Answer about submission</EM>: This action is to be used by an AMOS
reviewer upon approval or not of a given package proposal. The package will
be accepted in case all checkboxes are ticked (default) and rejected if any
of them has been unticked by the reviewer. In the text box below, the
reviewer can write any further comment about the package that will be
submitted to the authors along with an automatically generated text
associated to the field unticked, if any.

</UL>

<P> 

Note that when any query is made over a database table, the information
written into the form fields is taken as prolog terms. This way, any empty
field of the form is translated into a free variable and therefore will
unify all the corresponding arguments of the given table.

<P>
Besides, provides three different search modes are provided: 

<UL> 
<LI><EM>Normal search mode</EM>: This is the most restrictive search
mode. The results of the query will be just those tuples which exactly
match the fields specified.

<LI><EM>Case insensitive search mode</EM>: In this mode upper and lower
case is indistinct.

<LI><EM>Wildcards search mode</EM>: Implements a search where wildcards can be used. Special characters are:

<DL COMPACT>

<DT>*
<DD>
Matches any string, including the null string. 
<DT>?
<DD>
Matches any single character. 
<DT>[...]
<DD>

Matches any one of the enclosed characters. A pair of characters separated
by a minus sign denotes a range; any character lexically between those two
characters, inclusive, is matched. If the first character following the [
is a ^ then any character not enclosed is matched. No other character is
special inside this construct. To include a ] in a character set, you must
make it the first character. To include a `-', you must use it in a context
where it cannot possibly indicate a range: that is, as the first character,
or immediately after a range.  <DT>| <DD> specifies an alternative. Two
regular expressions A and B with | in between form an expression that
matches anything that either A or B will match.  <DT>{...}  <DD> groups
alternatives inside larger patterns.  

<DT> '
<DD> 
Quotes a special character
(including itself).  

</DL> 
</UL>



<h2><a name="reviewing"></a>Reviewing Procedure</h2>

AMOS interface for reviewing packages displays first a list of the packages
currently pending of validation. Here, a reviewer can click on any of them
and be forwarded to a new screen showing the complete description of the
package. The reviewer can now check the package and decide whether or not
to accept it into AMOS, using the above described action "Answer about
submission". After doing so, a reviewer can use the current interface to
check further pending packages or insert, modify or delete package
proposals himself.

<h2><a name="editing"></a>Editing the Dictionary</h2>

This interface allows browsing the dictionary terms currently available in
AMOS as well as editing, deleting, modifying and enter new ones.

<h2><a name="server"></a>Managing the Server</h2>

<P> 

The manager interface offers first a maintenance front page where the
following options are provided. Starting and stopping the interface is done
by running executables amos_start and amos_stop, respectively, under
$(INSTALLATION_ROOT)/$(WEBDBINSTANCENAME)/admin (see file COMMON).

<UL>

<LI><EM>System Status</EM>, which provides information about the dbserver
status and statistics about the system usage.

<LI><EM>Inspect/Insert/Modify Data</EM>, provides an interface to operate
on each table of the AMOS database.

<LI><EM>Modify Messages and Text Settings</EM>, provides a list with all
the system messages and the text settings and allows the system
administrator to edit them.

<LI><EM>Create/Destroy Tables</EM>, allows the system administrator to
create new satellite tables (those different form Dictionary,
Software_Description_Request, and Software_Description_Validation) or
destroy any of those already existing.

<LI><EM>Edit Tables Types</EM>, allows the system administrator to edit the
type of any field of a satellite table or to add or delete them.

<LI><EM>Reload Templates and Update DB Types</EM>. Once the configuration
files have been changed, this option reloads them and updates the system
with the new configuration.  

</UL>



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